Thirteen-inch mortar "Dictator"

Knox, David · October 1864

From "War Memories" catalog: The following views were photographed on the lines before Petersburg, Virginia, during the summer of 1864, and the winter of 1864-1865. This large sea-coast mortar is mounted on a special flat-car made very strong for this purpose. This mortar-car is on General Grant's military railroad at Petersburg. The car is readily moved along the line and the mortar is fired whenever required; it is thus made very effective and annoying to the enemy, for it is something like the Irishman's flea, "when they put their hand on it, it ain't there;" in other words, when they turn the fire of their batteries on the "Dictator," our boys hitch on to the car and run it along out of the line of fire and commence pegging away again.